But thou, O Goddess, mild Mother of Sighs, Sweet source of pity, patient sorrow’s balm, At thy mild bidding all our anguish dies, And grief’s wild billows soften into calm. When human hearts bring sympathy and share The woes of others, Mother, thou art there! When the sad penitent laments in vain O’er wasted moments—thou dost hope restore— To the pale captive, and the child of pain, Thou bringest liberty and health once more! All generous deeds and tender charities Are in thy hands—O, blessed Mother of Sighs! THE NICARAGUA AND PANAMA ROUTES TO THE PACIFIC. BY FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D. It is curious how often the first impression of experts has been confirmed by the verdict of posterity. During one of his journeys of inspection Peter the Great visited the mouth of the Volga River and pointed out the advantages of fortifying a certain promontory which a military commission, after long controversies, has now selected for the site of a bombproof arsenal. The gold discoveries in Upper California were predicted by Sir Francis Drake; those of the Ural by Baron Humboldt; and after fifty years of coast surveys, mountain surveys, negotiations, reports and counter reports, it seems now probable that two American Republics will ratify the opinion of Don Rodrigo Contreras, who more than three hundred years ago called the attention of the Spanish Government to the advantages of the Nicaragua Lake system, and its navigable effluent, as the rudiment of an inter-oceanic canal, and the superiority of that route over those both of Darien and Panama—Tehuantepec having then not yet entered into competition. This Rodrigo was the son-in-law of Davila Pedrarias, the first governor of Panama, and in his coasting trips between the landings of the southern isthmus had probably noticed a circumstance which may yet turn the scales in the decision of the canal problem, though it had escaped the attention of the routine sailors of a latter age, and perhaps even of some professional engineers who confined themselves to the comparison of altimetrical surveys.